PXP280 - Tactical Flight Officer (Police Constable) - All Forces

THIS VACANCY IS OPEN TO SUBSTANTIVE POLICE CONSTABLES FROM ALL 43 FORCES IN ENGLAND AND WALES (including BTP) AND IS SUBJECT TO WEST YORKSHIRE RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PROTOCOLS.

Tactical Flight Officer (Police Constable)
National Police Air Service (NPAS)
NPAS Bases nationally

Secondment - 40 hours per week.

Applications are invited for the role of Tactical Flight Officer with the National Police Air Service (NPAS) from substantive Constables who have completed their probationary period by the closing date of this advert.

This will be a secondment for Police Officers out with West Yorkshire Police. You will require permission from your current Force to be eligible to apply. THIS APPROVAL MUST BE IN PLACE PRIOR TO SUBMITTING AN APPLICATION.

In line with the national agreement, the length of the secondment is expected to be for 5 years and will be reviewed at that point. Officers will have to comply with their home force policy.

We are looking to recruit several suitably experienced substantive Constables to be trained as Tactical Flight Officers (TFOs) with the National Police Air Service serving at NPAS Bases across England and Wales. No prior aviation experience is required to be successful as your personal skills and abilities will be assessed throughout the selection process.

NPAS provides borderless air support to all police forces across England and Wales 24/7, 365 days a year from a national network of bases. Daily, NPAS helps save lives, tackles criminality and keeps people and communities safe. Police aircrew provide effective aerial support to ground based officers and in doing so improve operational response to incidents within the highest safety standards. Crews fly to a variety of missions including fast-paced, dynamic tasks and support large public events, Heads of State visits, and large demonstrations. On occasion, the crew can be called upon to land so the TFOs can assist people in distress, render first aid, or on rare occasions use police powers to arrest.

What we can offer you:

• Work in a state-of-the-art-aircraft, dealing with front line operational policing from a completely unique perspective across England and Wales.
• A stable working routine with the ability to plan ahead working either a 24 / 20 or 12 hour shift roster.
• Multi-Agency working
•A rewarding opportunity to enhance your career, develop personally and professionally, and also gain experience rarely found at this rank level.
•Training opportunities to obtain additional qualifications and courses, both aviation and non-aviation related, for lateral career development.

Once trained as a Tactical Flight Officer you will:

•Fly as an operational crew member within a police aircraft ensuring the safe and effective use of specialist role equipment to implement effective police air operations.
•‘Tactically navigate & map-read to an incident including on scene management and situational awareness in a safe and efficient manner and be ‘spatially aware’.
•Carry out searches, coordinate resources and effectively deal with emergency situations including command and control of police incidents and resources from the air.
•Communicate effectively at all times within an aircraft crew environment, other air assets and ground based units.
•Prioritise multiple strands of information from various sources and enhance flight safety.

Finally, this is an opportunity to gain knowledge and experience working in an aviation environment and to learn, adopt and foster the safety and reflective teachings that such an environment promotes. The lessons and additional skills learnt from this are transferable and can be applied into shaping a future modern police force.

Selection process:

The selection process for this role does not require any previous aviation knowledge or flight experience. There are several assessments to pass to reach the required standard, which is the same for all TFO and Base Manager candidates. This is to ensure our safety critical role is maintained and that suitable candidates are able to develop their skills through effective training balanced with operational policing exposure.

The stages of recruitment are as follows:

1. Application form received by NPAS.
2. Interview and group exercises (week commencing 13th May 2024).
3. Aircrew aptitude testing – RAF Cranwell (10th June).
4. TFO Training course.
If you are unable to attend these dates you will be unable to complete the selection process.

Due to the volume of candidates, the selection process takes time to complete with an average time from application to Aviation Foundation Course being roughly 3-4 months however, this could be longer dependent upon number of candidates in the process.
Once selected and prior to posting or secondment, officers are temporarily attached to NPAS and are required to pass a four-week structured Aviation Foundation Course (AFC) normally away from your normal area of work in another part of the country. There will be two courses run in 2024. Where this causes issues with an officer’s personal circumstances, some reasonable adjustments can be considered and implemented but accommodation and subsistence would be provided for the duration of the course. The AFC contains several continuous assessment checks on the way to qualification. This Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) required course includes such elements as:-

• Ground and aviation safety.
• Safe operations around police aircraft and the aviation environment.
• Tactical navigation using aviation charts and street atlases around specific task locations; both
pre-planned locations and ad hoc.
• Fire training.
• Crew resource management (CRM).
• Basic technical equipment training.

The course includes a summative final assessment of suitability to continue onto posting/secondment. If a candidate is unable to demonstrate the required development during the Aviation Foundation Course, Officers will be returned to Force. Success on this course is required to pass onto technical and operational training in the very limited timescales that we have.

The application process will close at 23:55 hrs on Sunday 14th April 2024.

To preserve the integrity of the recruitment process, and to ensure fairness to candidates, any applicant that has previously been unsuccessful at any stage of NPAS selection, is unable to submit a new application until 6-months has elapsed from the date of their last unsuccessful assessment. Once 6-months has elapsed, candidates are then eligible to apply to the next available recruitment advert.

NPAS has an expectation that Officers will not arrive into post with previously accrued Rest Days or TOIL.

NPAS will be conducting awareness sessions for the role of TFO to be held at bases across the country. If you wish to attend one of these sessions, then please send an email to: npas.recruitment@npas.police.uk
using the subject title: PXP280 AWARENESS SESSION